A movie review of ​THE SHAPE OF WATER.

This may be controversial, but director Guillermo del Toro has not made a five star movie. (PAN’S LABYRINTH is a bit overrated.) Del Toro has plenty of striking design ideas, from costumes and make-up to production sets, but they are not tied to satisfying storytelling. Bar PAN’S LABYRINTH, there are either major flaws or at best a shrug of the shoulders. His non-English language movies showcase the peaks of his prowess. THE SHAPE OF WATER does not join them.

The film commences with a Richard Jenkins monologue calling Sally Hawkins’ character “the princess without a voice”. Ugh. A clunky signal of the genre we are about to watch. But, and this is a big but, at least the lead is a refreshing choice on a number of levels.​

​If Elisa Esposito (Sally Hawkins) is the “princess” of the story, it is she who aims to rescue the prince, which goes even beyond SHREK’s knowing fairy tale deconstruction. And Elisa is no typical chaste male fantasy; we witness her morning routine, which includes self-pleasure in the bath before heading to work. Elisa has desire and is a sexual being.

She is a cleaner, and her transformation is not to some vacuous moneyed castle-dweller. The narrative has us consider if she will become the consort to a god. Sally Hawkins’ lead character is what makes THE SHAPE OF WATER stand out. Her performance mesmerises. A mute, her larynx cut as a baby (neck scars a reminder), one wonders who perpetrated such and why. Elisa communicates through sign language and a nuanced array of facial expressions. Surely an Oscar nomination is on the cards?

​Another unfortunate twee move is having her live above a cinema. The showing of the silver screen in movies is not necessary to evidence filmmaker love of what they do. Creating a good film is all that is required. Elisa’s apartment, and the colour palette generally, reminds too much of the work of Jean-Pierre Jeunet and Marc Caro (DELICATESSEN, THE CITY OF LOST CHILDREN). Is this not a sci-fi AMÉLIE?

At a science lab, where Elisa and best pal Zelda Fuller (Octavia Spencer) are employed on the cleaning crew, a humanoid creature is brought in by the unequivocal villain of the piece, Richard Strickland (Michael Shannon). He is the fairy tale ogre. The baddies are merciless government employees. The timing to criticise Trump, the Republicans and the British Tory party are coincidental, but welcome. Strickland and General Hoyt (Nick Searcy) seem to suggest a similarly entitled authoritarianism.

​The goodies are a winsome diverse array (also with commentary on modern America): a disabled woman, a gay man, a black woman, and a Soviet double agent. (A Russian spy who grows to love American values, is this meant to be ironic?) Caught in the Amazon, Amphibian Man (Doug Jones) is mistreated by Strickland. As striking as the make-up effects are, Amphibian Man looks too much like Abe Sapien from del Toro’s own HELLBOY movies. They both even enjoy eating eggs. The bunker laboratory also has echoes of HELLBOY’S Department for Paranormal Research and Development. There is homage and there is re-hash. You decide.

Meanwhile, an inter-species love story becomes the focus, and does not spare audience blushes. The film paints itself into a corner, offering only two likely endings. Removing unpredictability lets the air out of a movie. The climax reeks of faux hurdles for our heroes, further reducing enjoyment.

THE SHAPE OF WATER has the feel of the 1980s (like so much of pop culture lately), e.g. STARMAN. The experience needed another gear.

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